Your household goods to Bulgaria: no customs within the EU, but watch the route through a country outside it

Do you have to declare your household goods when you move to Bulgaria? Not as long as you stay within the EU. What you use for yourself or your family you take along without a declaration and without stopping at the border, and you already paid the VAT where you bought it. The pitfall is the route. If you drive through a country outside the EU, you leave the EU and come back in, with that country's customs and the rules for travellers from outside the EU.

What can come along without further ado?

Everything you take for your own use. Your Europe puts it like this: you may take along what you bought in another EU country without a declaration, as long as it is for yourself or your family and not for resale. EURES also writes that there are generally no limitations within the EU on goods for personal use, with exceptions for example for alcohol and tobacco.

Meat and dairy from an EU country you may carry for your own consumption, and vegetables, fruit and cut flowers if they were grown in the EU and are free of pests and disease. For powdered baby milk there is a limit of less than ten kilos.

Which limits apply within the EU, and which outside it?

What	Within the EU (guideline value)	Entering Bulgaria from outside the EU, by land
Cigarettes	800	40
Cigars	200	10
Smoking tobacco	1 kilo	50 grams
Spirits	10 litres	1 litre
Wine	90 litres	4 litres of still wine
Beer	110 litres	16 litres
Other goods	no limit for own use	300 euro per traveller
Fuel in a separate jerrycan	10 litres, besides a full tank	10 litres, besides a full tank
Cash	no European rule	declare from 10,000 euro

Within the EU the quantities for alcohol and tobacco aren't a maximum but a guideline value. If you bring more, customs may ask for proof it's for your own use. If you can't give it, you pay excise duty after all or lose the goods. Anyone under seventeen has no allowance for alcohol and tobacco when entering from outside the EU.

Why the route matters

Through a country outside the EU is no longer a domestic drive. Your Europe warns that anyone travelling from one EU country to another via a country outside the EU deals with that country's customs rules. For Switzerland that means: anyone carrying more alcohol or tobacco than Switzerland allows declares it on entering Switzerland and on returning to the EU. If you then enter Bulgaria by land, Bulgaria applies the low tobacco limit: 40 cigarettes. So for a removal van full of belongings, choose a route that stays within the EU, or ask your remover how they handle the transit.

The same goes for cash. Between EU countries there are no European rules, though a country may have its own. But anyone entering or leaving the EU with 10,000 euro or more must declare it.

And your medicines?

A prescription from a Dutch doctor is valid in every EU country. A medicine may just have a different name in Bulgaria, or not be available there. Ask your doctor for a prescription with the substance name rather than the brand name, with the form, the strength, the dosage and his full details. The Bulgarian pharmacist follows Bulgarian rules when dispensing.

What doesn't belong with the household goods?

The car. It crosses the border freely, but in Bulgaria it must be registered within a month, with an environmental charge. That is in car and driving licence in Bulgaria.

After the move you may still order in the Netherlands. A web shop selling more than 10,000 euro a year to other EU countries charges the VAT of the country of destination, so the Bulgarian rate. That rule doesn't apply to second-hand goods, art and antiques.

Where the lorry has to go depends on your address: the tenancy agreement is also your proof of address for registration. What to settle in advance is in renting in Bulgaria, and the order of the whole move in the step-by-step plan for Bulgaria.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Bulgaria or go straight to step 3.1 in the open plan.